Sure, I would like to see the verses that counteract James 2:17.
The sacraments are in interesting topic in this issue. Baptism, in the Church, is the ritual cleansing of our souls form Original Sin, inherited from Adam and Eve. Through Baptism, we can be truly connected to Christ, as we have gotten rid of Original Sin, and have Sanctifying Grace. The only people born without original sin are Jesus and Mary.
Reconciliation is the act of bringing amends to God, as our souls will fall to Satan's lies and temptations, and is a way of bringing us closer to God. In the Church, we believe that God wants us to participate in spreading his Word and being proactive in spiritual life, and to experience him in all five senses; sight, touch, smell, sound, and taste.
Communion is an essential part of Mass, which fulfills the five senses. Catholics believe that when the priest consecrates the bread, it becomes the true body of Christ, not figuratively, but literally. When we consume this, we are consuming Christ, and becoming part of him. Unfortunately, some Catholics have fallen away from this aspect, and do not think it is real, which we are working to bring back.
Marriage is the binding of a man and woman in holy matrimony, since they complement each other, as said in 1 Corinthians 12. They are permanently apart, and only through death are they separated. Annulments can happen, called a "Catholic divorce," but are very rare.
Holy Orders is becoming "married" to the Church, and becoming the people who do the work of Christ with his hands. Last Rites are the last sacrament to be taken, and are taken when a person is about to die. In cases where the patient is unable to speak, the priest will absolve their sins, and do the Rites for them.
The Papacy is the leader of the Church, which came from Peter, the first Pope, or Bishop of Rome. Protestants cast this into doubt, saying there is no reliable record of Peter entering Rome, as Loraine Boettner states, but the Ecclesiastical History in Loeb Classical Library states this explicitly.
Your assumption here is that I'm talking about a powerful being within the universe, like your aliens or supercomputer. That's not what I was talking about.
Anything material; falling within aliens, computers, energy, has parts, changes over time, and depends on external conditions to exist, which in turn makes it contingent. A contingent being cannot be the reason we exist, as it needs a cause.
Therefore, everything material is dependent, so the cause of the universe must be non-material, not bound by time, and not composed of parts. The first cause must be immaterial and outside of time. Creating a simulation doesn't make us gods, since we don't sustain our own existence--we depend on the universe, which depends on a sustaining cause. This is what God is.
God, by definition, is the cause of the universe, not part of it. Causes outside the physical universe aren't proven like things inside the system. We don't prove the existence of other minds, reality of morals, or logic. Yet we accept them since they are the best explanation. The existence of God is much like the same way; inference to the best explanation, not an experiment.
This is a massive assumption you are making here with your toothpick analogy. The fundamental constants of physics are unimaginably narrow to create life. This isn't "The universe looks nice for life." If the strong nuclear force were different by 1 in 10^40, stars could not form. Even more, if the cosmological constant varied by 1 in 10^120, the universe would fly apart or collapse instantly. This is not like toothpicks forming a word. This is toothpicks spelling a 10,000 page book in perfect English. Compared to the book, the word is less than a speck of dust to the laws of physics or nature. This also assumes the universe is random. But no, it is not random.
So then, what evidence do you have that the constants of physics arose by chance rather than design? None. You are making a metaphysical assumption just as much as you claim I do.
Also, a miracle isn't just "magic." It's an event whose best explanation is an intelligent cause rather than blind physical processes. The origin of physics, consciousness, and morality all are candidates for such explanation.
I got you bud(I'm a Catholic myself so it may be a bit skewed):
The Catholic Church believes that through good faith and works, we are saved, as mentioned in James 2:17, "So faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead." By contrast, some Protestants believe that in faith alone we are saved. The Church also has all seven sacraments, considered necessary, which are baptism, reconciliation, communion, marriage, holy orders, and anointing of the sick. Protestant branches omit some of each. Marriage in the Church is seen as binding a man and woman together, and until death do they part. In Protestantism, marriages can have divorce.
One major issue of contention is the topic of the Virgin Mary. Protestants have argued that the Church worships Mary, straying from God. The Church counters this by saying that they mistake when we pray to Mary, we worship: It is asking for intercession, as with other saints, thus giving her latria, or honor.
Being created by someone else would be nonsensical. If we were created by super advanced aliens, wouldn't they have some sort of corporeal form, which has to decay with time. Even a form made of light will fade, and even the world's strongest computers couldn't run every possibility of the universe. Our world is bound within time, and time can decay material. Therefore, someone else has to have created this world, without matter or antimatter, and has to exist out of time, which is God.
